Orthopedic splints commonly referred to as “gutter” splints are conventionally used to facilitate healing of injured bones. Gutter splints are useful because they immobilize injured bones, thus allowing the bones to heal quickly and in the proper orientation. While a variety of gutter splints currently exist for treating bone injuries of the hand and wrist area, such conventional gutter splints are not particularly useful in facilitating the healing of injuries to the metacarpals, proximal phalanges, and middle phalanges. Specifically, conventional gutter splints are either not capable of adequately immobilizing injured digits and/or exhibit one or more of the below described deficiencies.
Conventional gutter splints are difficult to manufacture and apply. Specifically, most conventional gutter splints must be custom made by a physician or a hand therapist using plaster, fiberglass, or thermoplastic. This process is tedious and inefficient. Additionally, conventional gutter splints cannot be inelastically deformed to meet the needs of specific patients. Thus, there is a need for a pre-fabricated, universally sized, and easy to apply hand splint that is capable of immobilizing injured digits.
Many conventional hand splints are further undesirable because they are bulky and uncomfortable and thus fail to promote patient compliance. If the splint is not comfortable for the patient to wear, the patient will not wear the splint and will not benefit from the healing effects associated with wearing the splint. Thus, there is a need for a hand splint that is comfortable to wear and thus promotes patient compliance.
Conventional plaster and fiberglass gutter splints are often permanently secured to the patient's arm and/or hand. Such conventional gutter splints are undesirable because they fail to provide immediate and easy access to the injured area when medically appropriate. Further, such gutter splints fail to allow removal of the splint to permit early mobilization of the injured digits as medically necessary and fail to permit removal for cleaning. Thus, there exists a need for a hand splint that can be easily secured to and detached from the bones of the patient's hand when necessary to permit access to the injured area, early mobilization of the injured digits, and cleaning of the splint.
Additional deficiencies associated with conventional gutter splints are that they are subject to being applied incorrectly and place the hand and fingers in improper positions for healing. Further, conventional gutter splints are often applied either too tightly or loosely and fail to take into account swelling of the injured area. Thus, there is a need in the pertinent art for a hand splint that insures the placement of the hand and fingers in the proper position for healing (referred to in the art as “intrinsic plus position”) and may be adjustable in response to patient swelling, thus providing edema control.